AMHERST, Mass. - It
came down to a pair of freshmen.
First-year Amherst forward Sarah Walker (West Hartford, CT)
made one free throw with :15.3 left and fellow newcomer Sally
Hamill (Scituate, MA) made both ends of a two-shot foul with
:02.4 remaining to seal a dramatic 65-62 victory for host Amherst
over visiting Smith College Tuesday night.
Walker and Hamill's heroics capped a wild back-and-forth second
half which saw host Amherst rally from an eight-point deficit
before taking a 53-46 lead with seven minutes remaining. But Smith
mounted a comeback of their own. Pioneer guard Antonia Bowman
(Healdsburg, CA) rattled off six of her game-high 24 points
and teammate Beth Rist (Easthampton, MA) nailed a pair
of late three-pointers en route to a 19-point effort to cap a
14-5 run which saw the visitors take a 60-58 lead inside the 2:30
mark.
But the Jeffs rallied once more behind senior Co-captain Naomi
Sullivan (Hudson, MA). Sullivan finished a beautiful feed
from point guard Sara Bozorg (Amherst, MA) to give her
a team-high 22 points for the evening before Rist connected again
to put Smith ahead. But it was the last lead they would enjoy.
Bozorg made a short jumper to tie the game, and came up with a
steal on the defensive end to give the Jeffs possession. Walker
pulled down her game-high 14th rebound off a miss from Jeff Co-captain
Liza Feldman (Sudbury, MA), and was fouled on her ensuing
attempt to set up the finish.
Sullivan's 22 points led four Jeffs in double figures, including
junior Charlotte Taylor (Harvard, MA), who posted a career-high
10 points in her first career start, along four rebounds and three
assists. Hamill and Walker finished with 12 points each, and Walker
added a career-high six steals to her 12-point, 14-rebound performance,
the third double-double for the freshman.
The Jeffs, who snapped a three-game December losing streak with
the win in their first game of 2000, won the game from the foul
line, attempting 25 free throws to the Pioneers' three. Shooting
18 for 25 from the charity striple, the Jeffs were 10 of 14 from
the line in their 41-point second half, their second-highest single-half
output of the season.
For the Pioneers, senior forward Lauren Kernochan (Santa Monica,
CA) finished with 13 points, bringing her to the 1,000-point
mark for her career, along with a team-high nine rebounds. Bowman
finished with eight rebounds, six assists and six steals to go
along with her 24-point performance, while Rist finished seven
of 10 from the field, including 3-5 from behind the three-point
line, and added six assists to her 19-point finish.
The Pioneers drop to 4-6 with the loss, while the Jeffs improve
to 5-4, and are next in action Thursday night at Babson College.
Tuesday, January 11 at Amherst, Massachusetts
| 1 | 2 | -- | F | |
| Smith College (4-6) | 30 | 32 | 62 | |
| Amherst College (5-4) | 24 | 41 | 65 |
Smith (62) Bowman 11-24 0-0 24, Rist 7-10 2-2 19, Kernochan 6-13 1-1 13, DeFina 2-7 0-0 4, Hughes 1-3 0-0 2, Williams 0-2 0-0 0, Keenan 0-1 0-0 0
Amherst (65) Sullivan 9-25 4-4 22, Hamill 4-10 4-5 12, Walker 3-5 6-9 12, Taylor 3-4 3-4 10, Bozorg 3-7 1-3 7, Coscarelli 1-4 0-0 2, Feldman 0-4 0-0 0, Putnam 0-4 0-0 0
3-point goals - Smith 5-7 (Rist 3-5, Bowman
2-4), Amherst 1-8 (Taylor 1-2, Hamill 0-3, Bozorg 0-1, Putnam
0-1, Feldman 0-1). Fouled Out - DeFina. Rebounds - Smith
39 (Kernochan 9), Amherst 40 (Walker 14). Assists - Smith
20 (Bowman, Rist 6), Amherst 20 (Bozorg 5). Total fouls - Smith
19, Amherst 7. Technicals - None. Attendance - 217.
# # # 1/11/2000